Getting Things Done in Rural Oregon

Towns in rural Oregon are facing some tough questions. What will our community be like in ten years? What employment opportunities will exist? Should we try to attract tourists? How will watershed protection, ecosystem analysis, and other "new" environmental-management techniques affect our economy, our salmon stocks, and our quality of life?
"The answers to these questions are important for almost every rural town; for some, they may be the difference between flourishing and fading away," says David Povey, a University of Oregon professor of planning, public policy and management.
Since 1994, Povey has been helping rural communities find answers through a program he heads called Resource Assistance for Rural Environment (RARE).
Here's how RARE works. Students interested in gaining experience in community and regional development apply for placements in rural Oregon communities. Every year approximately twenty-five students (a mix of undergraduates and graduates) are selected. Each participant receives a year of training at the UO, before moving to a community where he or she works 1,700 hours over a year's time. An additional five students each year choose to participate in RARE after they have completed their master's degrees.
The rural community provides half of the $30,000 it costs to train, place, and support a full-time RARE intern. Each participant goes to a community equipped with a computer, modem, and printer; this hardware stays in the community after completion of the RARE assignment. "Our aim is to get things done in the towns of rural Oregonóand that's what we do. We started out in 1994 with fourteen students," Povey says. "Now we are up to about thirty per year. By the end of this year's program, we'll have found rural-development opportunities for ninety-four students in as many towns or watersheds across the state of Oregon."
RARE participants provide various kinds of community services, including:

Community Development: Main-street renovations, business assistance, and development of community volunteer programs
Community Planning: Assisting with land use inventories, developing GIS maps, planning revisions, and encouraging citizen involvement
Watershed Coordination: Helping to form, train, and staff watershed councils; training residents in water-quality assessment; writing grants
Rural Policy Liaison: Helping to connect rural issues and opportunities with emerging state policies
Schools: Engaging students and teachers in community-service activities such as stream renovation

"Our students are widely noted for their success in writing proposals that bring in much-needed funding," Povey says. "In the past thirty months alone, they've helped find $2.2 million."

The money is earmarked for such useful projects as renovation of a coastal cannery, downtown improvements, water projects, training for displaced timber workers, and events to increase tourism. RARE-generated grants have also helped fund volunteer fire fighting, recycling and weed-eradication programs, water festivals, water conservation programs, and other events that protect and enhance the rural environment and help promote community solidarity.

More than fifty towns requested this year's thirty participating students. These students outshined forty other student applicants who were not accepted into the highly competitive program.

"RARE provides know-how and energy in the form of highly motivated students," Povey notes. "It really gets results for rural communities and provides valuable professional experience for our students."

Back to INQUIRY, Fall 1997